Zendarrian Assault
by Torn Fox
Summary: "There was always something wrong with him, now we know what it was." (Takes place after my other story, "Time Travel"). When the time had finally come, they were caught off guard. He'd gained their trust, and then used it against them to lure the heroes into a lethal trap. Can Sonic and the others put aside their differences with old and new foes to survive? Post your thoughts.
1. Chapter 1

About three months after the epilogue of Time Travel, it was almost midnight on the planet Mobius, and a battle was raging on the surface between two powerful forces; but one was not what it seemed.

"Is that the best ya got, Egghead!?" Sonic the hedgehog was battling his old foe in the center of town. "If it is, then your losing your touch!" He smashed through another one of the doctor's robots, which was easy; but whenever he tried to hit Eggman directly, the doctor evaded skillfully up into the sky, and came back down quite a fair difference away.

"Sonic!" Knuckles smashed in another robot's head while avoiding the slash of it's sword; which was also unusual as Eggman rarely considered swords to be a weapon. "How many of these things are there?" He shouted while continuing to destroy the robots one by one.

"I don't know! Man, I wish Tails was here to help, that arm cannon of his would come in handy about now!" Sonic shouted back.

The twin-tailed fox they had spoken of was, unfortunately, otherwise occupied. Not in battle, but trying to reassure one of his closest friends. Cosmo had been rather frightened the previous night when they had seen the stars shift positions incredibly fast, and they had all been scared by this since they assumed Eggman was behind it.

"Please just forget about it already, you don't have anything to be afraid of."

"But no one has been able to move the stars before, not even my father could!" She was pacing around the room, which mad it that much more difficult for Tails to help.

"Cosmo, i'll call Mark over here to help if I have to, but you need to stop worrying. It's alright." He had managed to get ahead of her and had his hand on her shoulder.

"I...I guess you're right. I don't doubt you, Tails, it's just that...what if this is a sign?"

Tails pulled an orange wrist communicator out of his two tails, and put it on Cosmo's wrist. Then proceeded to put one on himself. "Here, if you get into trouble you can just push this button, Me and, well...or Sonic will be there in no time!" He gave her a friendly hug, "Like I said, you have nothing to worry about."

"Say, how do you think Sonic's doing against Eggman."

Tails broke out of the hug and thought for a moment, "Well...I honestly don't know. I guess we could-Ah!" Cosmo had dragged him by the arm out the door when the sound of loud explosion reached the house. "Alright, I guess we're going!"

Back in the city, Sonic and Knuckles were starting to notice Eggman's robots were decreasing in number, "Let's keep this going!" Sonic dashed at a group of them, he tore through their metal bodies with his spines and they fell over not long after.

"I've got him!" Knuckles shouted to Sonic before he successfully landed a hit on Eggman's hovercraft from above, sending it into the ground below quite violently.

"Alright Eggman, you're finished." Sonic stood next to his enemy, but he soon realized something. Out of his typical curiosity, he poked Eggman when he didn't respond; and the fat man deflated as he stood up in response. But he dropped his coat, and an inflatable airbag in the process.

"Surprise, Sonic." The man said, he had brown hair like Mark's, but had both of his eyes and wore red armor with no gem in the chest. His cape was in perfect order and the same shade of red as his armor.

"W-Who are you!?" Knuckles demanded, trying his best to sound intimidating.

"If that was supposed to be threatening, it wasn't." Was his simple response.

"You look like Mark!" Sonic exclaimed.

"That's because I serve him you foolish rat. I am Dan, Mark's second in command of the Zendarrian military!" He proudly proclaimed. "You have no idea what you're dealing with, Sonic; so i'd suggest that if you wish to survive, you stand down."

"I'm not going to stand down, but you will answer my question! Why were you using Eggman's robots, how did you even get them!?" He shouted.

"It was merely a distraction while we moved our fleet into orbit. However, since you refuse to stand down; you will pay the price. I think it's time we reveal ourselves!" At that command, creatures wearing full body suits of flexible, black armor emerged from every dark area in the city. Although barely noticeable, their legs were lizard-like, and they were slightly hunched over. Their helmets had only two visible holes that revealed their petrifying yellow eyes.

"W-w-what are those!?" Knuckles couldn't keep himself from sounding scared, they were quite intimidating in their appearance; and their sheer numbers.

"It doesn't matter Knuckles, old pal! We can take em'!"

Dan smirked. "Mark was right, you are like target 215. Young, arrogant, and you love adventure. Let's hope that the outcome is different though, for Mark's sake." He unsheathed a red crystal broadsword from the back of the armor under his cape. "But there's only one way we'll find out." The Zendarr began firing dark purple bolts of energy from their wrists, and some, but not all, activated an energy shield on their left arm.

Sonic darted about to avoid being hit, while Knuckles used a nearby piece of debris to try and shield himself, but after only a few hits it crumbled to dust, forcing the echidna into hiding behind a car; he hoped it would last longer than the debris had.

Back with Tails though, things were quite different. "Cosmo, can you let go please!" She stopped and released him, they caught their breath and were about to continue on their way when a familiar voice stopped them in their tracks.

"Good, I was afraid that the sound of the explosion had gone unheard." The two turned and saw Mark walking towards them, he stopped about ten feet away from them.

"Really Mark, you almost scared us half to death!" Tails sounded rather annoyed, but this didn't seem to bother their friend in the slightest.

"Well, that would've made this a whole lot easier." He said with seemingly no emotion, he rarely showed any around them anyways; but this was different.

"W-What do you mean?" Cosmo asked, fearing what Mark was going to do. Tails took a defensive stance in front of Cosmo after noticing Mark's change in attire.

He chuckled before saying, "You've served your purpose. Miles, Cosmo, I have no further use for you; and now...life as you know it comes to an end." He swept his left arm in a horizontal arc, and sent out a wave of energy that sent Tails and Cosmo quite a distance, so far that they wound up passing Tails' workshop, and found themselves dangling off the edge of the runway.

"M-Mark's never had that power!" Tails exclaimed while keeping himself, and Cosmo from falling into the ocean below.

"He betrayed us!" Cosmo exclaimed while she held on to Tails' hand as tightly as she could to avoid falling.

"I'm only doing what's best for everyone." They looked up and saw Mark standing, his right foot mere inches from Tails' hand. "I wish you two a quick, painless death. You've earned it." He kicked Tails' hand and forced them to plummet faster than a rock.

But being the clever fox he was, Tails saved them by aiming for a small opening in the cliff wall. Tails took the brunt of the injuries, and they successfully survived Mark's initial betrayal when they landed in a cave. Cosmo felt a dull pain, like someone would if they had been bruised, but Tails felt like someone had stabbed him repeatedly with a tiny pin in nearly every part of his body. "You alright Cosmo?"

"I think so." She helped him over to the cave wall so he could lie down. "Tails, I know you'll probably tell me to stay, but I have to go warn Amy and Galaxina. If Mark gets to them he'll kill them like he just tried to kill us!"

Tails didn't like the idea, but nonetheless, "Alright Cosmo, stay hidden." He reluctantly said. "If you get into trouble; just remember that you have the communicator with you." After hearing his approval she began to climb up from the opening of the cave. It was quite the climb; but she was determined like Sonic was at that same moment.

He darted about continuously, and every time he managed to attack one of the soldiers, they just got back up moments later. "Why won't they just stay down?" He shouted in frustration, Knuckles was still hiding behind the car, but it was starting to fall apart.

"That armor they're wearing was designed to withstand all melee attacks like the ones your using, Sonic. It would take incredible strength to break it without a weapon." Dan boasted to Sonic, even though he hadn't made the armor.

"Stop talking and pay attention will ya!" Sonic had taken the opportunity to charge right for Dan in a homing attack, but Dan threw him away like a bowling ball and used him to destroy the car Knuckles was using as cover.

"Sonic, I hate to say it, but I think we have to run. We can't beat him."

"Come on Knuckles, where's that-"

"Did you see what he just did to you Sonic! He threw you away like you were nothing! Now come on, before were turned to dust like that car!" Knuckles' sentence shocked Sonic, who knew the echidna hardly ever ran from a fight. But the speedy hedgehog followed nonetheless. Energy bursts whizzed past their heads as they ran for the edge of town, and Sonic dropped a Chaos Emerald along the way; but they made it.

When they were running though, they had seen the civilians run with them, most were stopped by the Zendarr soliders Sonic and Knuckles had to break through; leaving only about twenty of them left with the hedgehog and echidna in the nearby forest.

"Knuckles," Sonic started, "we have to get these people to safety. We need to find our friends and get to the Blue Typhoon so we can get off the planet."

"We can't give up! If Mark has his way with Mobius, who knows what he'll do! What if he gets the Master Emerald, then what could he do?" Knuckles protested, but Sonic reassured him.

"Oh we're not giving up, not by a long shot. But they have the upper hand, we have to gather everyone we can and get out of here." His tone was, for once in his life, harsh near the end. Knuckles nodded and they began to make their way towards Tails' workshop. "I just hope Amy's alright."

The pink hedgehog Sonic spoke of, was unaware of Mark's betrayal. "Galaxina, aren't the effects of that potion wearing off? Even just slightly?" She asked her guest.

"What potion?" The blue haired Seedrian replied.

"Ayeyaye." Amy let herself fall back into the chair with frustration.

Outside the house, Cosmo had made it and was running to the back door since she had seen Zendarr and Mark approaching from the other side. She opened the door and rushed into the room with her friends in it. "Amy. Sister. We have to leave, now!"

"Why?"

"Can't it wait?"

"There's no time!" She grabbed both of them by the arm and dragged them out the back; just in time. The front door was blasted to dust and Zendarr flooded the house quickly, Mark entered last.

Only after a moment or two, a Zendarr reported, "The house is secure, sir."

But Mark didn't seem to think so, and he sniffed the air a few times. "Their scent is still fresh, find them! I want everyone on full alert; patrol the city and question anyone suspicious!" The solider quickly ran to carry out the order. Before he left the house to his men, Mark looked out the window at a patch of darkness in the treeline. "You there!" He pointed to two soldiers coming down the stairs.

"Yes, sir?" They asked in unison.

"Go out there and patrol the treeline, tell me what you find."

"Right away!" The two ran out the back door and split up, walking along the treeline behind Amy's house.

Cosmo, Galaxina, and Amy watched them and stayed as still as they could, "What are those?" Amy whispered to Cosmo.

"I heard Mark call them Zendarr, but other than that I don't have any idea." She whispered back, and all three fell silent when they realized both soldiers would complete their sweep of the circular treeline around the trees they were behind. "Don't make a sound."

They did their best; the sound of the Zendarr's footsteps frightened them, but they remained out of sight. Although Amy wanted to give them a whack with her hammer, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Just leave already." She whispered to herself, which seemed to get the nearest solider's attention.

He turned towards Amy's tree, "Max, did you hear that?" The other solider came over and walked to the tree.

He quickly looked around to the backside of the tree, but saw nothing. "You're just paranoid, Gabe. Come one, let's go." They ran back into the house to report their findings, which was nothing.

"Can we get up now?" Galaxina whispered to Cosmo and Amy. After hearing Cosmo say they could they stood up; when the solider had noticed Amy, she ducked under the foliage on the ground. Cosmo and Galaxina had followed, and they were alive.

"That was close." Cosmo said. "But we don't have time to wait around and find out if they're coming back. Let's go!" All three made a break away from the house; the thick vegetation, and the mud from the rain that had begun created a troublesome time for all three of them. Luckily they weren't afraid of getting dirty.

"You're almost there Sonic!" Knuckles shouted down the side of the cliff at Tails' house. They had managed to sneak past the soldiers, and luckily for them Mark hadn't secured Tails' workshop yet; they didn't question why.

"Hang in there Tails." Sonic said to the fox he was carrying up the face of the cliff. When Sonic had used the communicator's medical attachment, it had revealed Tails broke his left arm in the fall to the cave. The rain had turned into a storm, and was pelting them as the strong winds tried to pry them off of the cliff face.

"Sonic! Look out!"

"Ygh!" Sonic let go of the cliff face and grabbed hold of a ledge, while holding on to Tails at the same time. An aircraft of sorts impacted with the rock, and the debris fell down to the ocean; Sonic and Tails spotted a circular symbol of sorts on a piece of flaming debris, but couldn't get a good look at it before it was gone. Sonic turned his head towards the direction the aircraft had come from, "Whoa."

He saw an immense starship, firing at something in the clouds that was firing back with smaller dots flying around it, he presumed those to be fighters. "Sonic, I don't mean to interrupt but...I've got a broken arm here!" Tails snapped after Sonic had been watching for a minute or two.

"Sorry buddy, let's get that fixed up, eh?" The hedgehog scaled the cliff as best he could, but it took them a good ten minutes to reach the edge of the runway after they had fallen such a distance. Alright guys, let's get inside before something else comes up." They headed through the door as fast as they could to get out of the horrible weather, they had to plan their escape.


	2. Chapter 2

This Chapter's much shorter, but I was on a rather big time constraint.

While Sonic and the others planned their escape, Eggman had already started his own. "Hurry up! We don't have much time before they arrive!" He shouted to Decoe and Bocoe, who were loading crates of technology and robot parts onto the _Crimson Egg_, which had been restored once the doctor had learned of Mark's true nature.

"We're doing everything we can! So stop yelling at us!" They shouted back.

The base lights changed to a flashing red, the ground shook soon after. "Change of plans. Transfer all of our most reliable E-Series robots to the ship." He told the two. "Shadow! Delay the intruders until liftoff! We need more time!"

The hedgehog heard the orders on the other end of the communicator. "Got it." He dashed towards the base's main entrance as fast as possible. Shadow arrived just as the Zendarrians broke down the main gate, firing upon the E-12 robots guarding the area.

The robots were slow, but their durable armor allowed them to reach the soldiers firing at them and bringing their arm's down to crush them. The enemy expected this though and when an E-12 brought it's arm down a soldier leapt onto the arm, and fired driectly into the robot's eye with their powerful weapons, effectively rendering that robot useless.

Shadow quickly joined the battle after observing his enemies' strategies. Using chaos spear, he fired on a group, they were blown off their feet, but got up and began firing on him instead. When he charged them with a homing attack; they worked together to keep him at bay, eventually finding the strength to throw him back.

He was forcefully rammed through an E-12, it crashed down between him and the soldiers and created a temporary barrier that allowed Shadow to regain his strength. "They're tougher than they look."

The Zendarrian soldiers climbed over the fallen robot with ease, and continued their assault. "We can't let the doctor escape!" Dan's voice shouted through one of their communicators. Without a word they dashed past Shadow to get through the second entrance gate.

"Oh no you don't. Chaos Spear!" The bolts of energy exploded on contact with the support brace above, crushing the soldiers underneath with Shadow just managing to get back into the base.

"Beginning launch sequence!" Decoe and Bocoe said while entering the commands into the _Crimson Egg_'s computer.

"Light Shields up!" Eggman slammed the button next to him, and a yellow, hull-tight barrier began surrounding the ship.

The base shook once more as a Zendarrian Assault Tank blasted it's way through the debris blocking the second entrance gate. "Fire, once again!" The commander ordered. The energized shells from the tank obliterated the walls in their way; the enemy was closing in.

"Shadow, get back to the ship! We're leaving!"

"I'm on the way!" He rushed through groups of enemies as fast as possible. Until he reached the Assault Tank.

"Crush that rodent!" The tank fired upon Shadow, who was too late to get away from the explosion; as a result he recieved minor injuries.

"What are these things?" He said to himself as he slowly got back up. "Doesn't matter, it's time to leave." He leapt up above the tank, "Chaos Spear!" The bolts of energy converged into the main gun barrel, and successfully immobilized the tank, giving Shadow the time he needed to retreat to the ship. Just before the Light Shields were fully activated, he slipped inside the ship's hangar and collapsed against the wall, exhausted beyond belief.

The engine on the bottom of the Crimson Egg erupted in a blaze as it lifted off the ground, bursting through the building above and rising into the sky. But they weren't alone. "Doctor, incoming enemies!" Decoe shouted.

A Zendarrian Chaos Battlecruiser charged the ship, hordes of fighters rushing ahead. Behind it Eggman could see the flaming remains of his once glorious Egg Fleet.

"Go! Fire all weapons, launch all fighters and raise all shields! I want them blown out of the sky!"

The fighter horde began to explode in segments as the missiles Eggman launched detonated, forcing chain reactions in each one. The laser bursts he fired impacted with the battlecruiser's hull, although it made little physical impact against the ship's thick armor.

Although there was no external damage, the bursts were powerful enough to shake the crew inside. Thus forcing their first attacks to barely miss the _Crimson Egg_.

They fired again, tearing a massive hole in the starbord side of the lower hull, fire erupted from within. "D'Uagh!" Eggman braced himself against his console with all his strength, the rest did the same. Shadow fell to the cold, metal plated floor on the lower decks as he fled from the flames.

"Activate security bulkheads! Douse that Flame!" The bulkhead doors closed rapidly, and just in time to save Shadow from a fiery grave. "Return fire! Concentrate everything we can on those cannons while I charge the Egg Drive!"

The battle was fierce, missiles lauched from every silo on the ship and erupted in flames against the ship's armored turrets. Lasers followed, scarring the external casing with searing heat marks.

"Squad, follow me in!"

"Roger that, boss." A squadren of unknown red and white fighters charged at the ones heading for Eggman's ship. Blue energy bolts destroyed two or three, but a fierce dogfight ensued soon after.

"Now's our chance! Activate launch boosters, full power!" The _Crimson Egg_ darted off the hroizon, a second cluster of the Egg Fleet ships followed within seconds.

The battle continued, and Sonic watched from the cliff, Tails would be fine with a bit of recovery. The hedgehog was impressed with how quickly the battle had escelated, from retreat, to a bloodbath, and back to a retreat in a matter of minutes! "Good luck Doc, you'll need it."

"Someone help!" He heard the shout and knew what to do, his shoes gained traction as soon as he took off.

Sonic ran as fast as possible, and in seconds prevented a Zendarrian soldier from finishing a young looking girl. "looking for me?" He homing attacked them one by one, geting lucky after having caught them off-guard.

"Very clever, Sonic." A silver, clawed fist contacted with Sonic's stomach, sending him through a tree and into a boulder. "Now let's see if you're the hero you're said to be. On guard!"


	3. Chapter 3

"Ygh!" Sonic dashed at Mark, and at the last moment slid under him before ramming his back with a homing attack. "How's that for heroics?"

"I've seen better." Mark lashed out at Sonic, who leaned backwards to doge the man's assault.

"Come one Mark! Step it up!" Sonic said while dancing on a nearby tree limb; it was all thanks to his legendary speed.

Unfortunately, Mark _did_ step it up. "If you insist." With a single leap, he slammed his fists into the ground, opening a crevice that ran up the tree and in a matter of seconds, shattered it to splinters.

"I didn't mean that much!" Sonic leapt off of Mark's head, but not unscathed. Mark's claws slashed down Sonic's left leg, creating near unbearable pain for the spiky blue hero.

The girl stepped inbetween the two, arms outstreched.

Mark smiled, and made an odd eye movement with his remaining eye. Which the girl oddly repeated. "If you stand in my way, then you will be eliminated!" He shot a continuous beam of dark energy at her, while the girl blocked it with a barrier of cyan energy.

But Sonic, with his last burst of speed, grabbed the girl and dashed with all his might back to Tails' workshop. "Sorry to run, but i've got a job to do!"

Mark didn't chase them. But instead he said, "I hope this plan of yours works." He pulled out a communicator. "Dan, stage 1 is complete. Did you get the Doctor?"

"No, he escaped in his ship. Although we did managed to inflict heavy damage to his engine, they won't get far."

"Alright. I just hope this doesn't fail."

"Same here." Dan replied before cutting communications.

The escapees walked side by side in the night. "So, who are you?" Sonic asked as he limped the remaining distance to Tails' workshop.

"My name's Ashlei. You're Sonic the Hedgehog. Aren't you?" She replied with a smile.

"Yeah, that's me. How'd you know?"

"My dad talked about you quite a bit. This is the first time i've actually seen you in person though."

The planet was in turmoil. The invasion was startling and plumes of smoke rose from the ground in the distance. It pained Sonic greatly to know he couldn't do much of anything against this new enemy. It pained him even more that their leader had become such close friends with them.

"Hey Amy! I need you!" He shouted when they were in earshot of the house. The pink hedgehog immendiatly ran out with a bag of equipment, she was prepared for pretty much anything at this point.

"Sonic! What happened!?" She pulled bandages out in an instant upon seeing his leg. "Don't move." She used a wet washcloth to clean the wound, and quickly but carefully applied medecince and bandages.

"Thanks Amy. As for what happened, Mark happened." He then gestured to Ashlei. "I managed to save her from Mark."

"Not that I needed it." She rolled her eyes, although it was hard to tell from their near pitch black surroundings.

"You yelled for help."

"Egh. Shouldn't we get inside? It's pretty cold out here."

Amy opened the door and they stepped inside. Getting their first good look at their new friend.

Ashlei was taller than all of them, but about three inches shorter than Mark. Her skin was a cute green color with short golden hair in a ponytail, save for her two bangs. She wore a red semi-formal shirt with white jeans, black boots, and she carried a bag over her shoulder that looked like a brown satchel. But the most interesting thing about her were three tentacle looking things coming from her back; oddly they weren't very distracting. Her eyes were a beautiful azure color, but she wore brown rimmed glassess.

Knuckles just stared. Tails and Cosmo smiled politely. Galaxina and Cream introduced themselves. Amy accused her of being after Sonic now that she'd gotten a good look. Overall it was the normal introduction for them getting to know a new person.

"It's nice to meet you all." She said with a smile. "Hey Knuckles. Something wrong?" Her expression said it all.

"Ugh, wha-what?" He stuttered.

The others laughed and Knuckles insisted that it wasn't funny, despite the fact his face had turned red by now.

"So, why were those soldiers after you?" Cosmo asked once things had calmed down.

"I took some things from them. I couldn't let them keep these." Ashlei opened the bag and pulled out, one by one, four gleaming Chaos Emeralds. The room fell silent for several minutes, only the sounds of the battle outside were heard.

"Four Chaos Emeralds! With the three we have...Sonic! We can use the Chaos Emeralds to escape the planet!" Tails shouted with hope.

"But they'll be scattered again!" Knuckles protested.

"Well why don't _you_ use brain for one instead. Hm? Oh that's right, you don't have one." Amy poked Knuckles in the head, where his brain was.

Before they could decide however, the house shook with tremendous force.

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice now. Everyone, get to the Blue Typhoon."

"I'll keep em' busy for ya!" Knuckles proclaimed before heading to one of the windows near the front door.

All of them, with the exception of Knuckles, ran as fast as they possibly could, down to the hangar where the Blue Typhoon was. Although the cruiser was still quite damaged, it was capable of flight.

Sword wielding Zendarrians approached the front door, but were interrupted. "How's it goin'?" Knuckles' spiked fist slammed straight into the lead soldier's face, knocking him out cold after being caught by surprise.

The echidna then grabbed the next one, swinging him around and around before sending him into a group of others.

Two other Zendarrians dashed head on at Knuckles.

"Gabe, you remember the plan?"

"Of course! Let's do this!"

Gabe slid right into the echidna's feet, while Max delivered an uppercut in the jaw as he fell.

Knuckles landed hard against the ground, he spat out bits of dirt before getting up. "I'll admit, you two aren't bad." He punched Gabe in the chest. "But I will protect the Emeralds!"

Tails reached the top of the command chair's ladder, Amy, Cream, Cosmo, and Galaxina took stations on the bridge. "Come on. Come on!" The bridge lights flickered on, and consoles slowly came online one by one. "Sonic! Can you hear me?"

"I hear ya Tails!" Sonic said as he dashed to the power room.

"We need to transfer enough energy to get off the planet, just wait for a minute!" Another explosion, sections of the support braces above gave way and collapsed to the battered flight deck.

"You'd better hurry then, Tails!" But soon after this was said, constant trmors were felt, and a steady rain of debris was falling from above.

60%

"No, stop!" Knuckles watched from afar as the Zendarrian Battlecruiser from earlier fired away at the underground hangar. "Alright, no time like the present to prove myself the guardian of the Master Emerald!" He dashed as fast as he possibly could, carrying the massive green gem on his back.

70%

"Come on, give it your best shot!" They fired at him as he desperately ran to aid his friends. But Knuckles reflected the energy back at each soldier, finally eliminating some of them. "Yeah, bring it on!" The more they shot, the more that were eliminated. The wind and rain began to clear more and more the closer Knuckles got to his destination. The burning pain of exhaustion in his legs had steadily increased.

80%

"AAAARRRGHH!" The top of the hangar was smashed apart as Knuckles made his grand entrance, luckily landing near the power room through one of the remaining holes in the hull. Bashing his way through the door, Knuckles placed the Master Emerald into it's slot.

The lights in the ship intsnsified, blinding everyone for a mere moment, but that didn't stop the order from the bridge."Alright Sonic! Buy us some time!"

As the flaming golden aura surrounded him, and his blue fur became golden; Sonic smirked, knowing plently well that he could accomplish this.

The golden hedgehog shot upwards, annihilating the rest of the hangar's roof as he went. In moments, he rammed through the Zendarrian Battlecruiser's thick armor, annihilating the power core and causing the ship to implode upon itself in a glorius blaze of flames and metal scraps.

Sensing he was being watched, Soinc looked to his left. Mark was glaring at him from Angel Island.

Sonic had one last thought. _Alright Mark, let's dance._


	4. Chapter 4

Sonic bolted across the sky in a streak of gold, heading right at Mark. In mere moments he rammed into the ground below the man's feet and sent him high in the sky, upon coming back down his metal fist narrowly missed and caused even furter damage to the ground.

Sonic didn't hesitate to come back around and ram him into what was left of Tails' workshop. "Quite impressive, Sonic. I'll give you that." Mark commented once he had gotten back up. He drew both of his crystalline bladede swords. "But unless you give up, I can't let you carry on!"

"Yagh!" Sonic dodged as Mark leapt up to his level, swinging one of his sword with extreme prescision he created a small cut down the hedgehog's right leg. He bolted around to behind him in an attempt to get Mark to lose track of him. But to no avail, Mark was using his energy to stay right on Sonic's tail, firing bursts at him when the time arose. "How's this?" Did a near instantaneous one-eighty turn, ramming Mark head on.

Mark lost his focus and fell for a moment, but soon regained it. "Not bad." When Sonic rushed him again, Mark grabbed him by the arm and flung him through the cliff, causing the start of it's collapse. Sonic felt the rush of the wind on his face as he dashed into Mark from below, but felt a dull pain upon impact with the man due to his armor, which by this point remained solid.

He returned the favor, kicking Sonic into the stratosphere of the planet using his own momentum against him. Rushing up to Sonic's level, he simply floated there and waited for him to make a move.

I can't beat him normally, i'll have to think fast too if i'm gonna buy anymore time!

The golden hedgehog thought to himself, the relentless rain and wind from earlier had become almost nonexistant at this point.

Both feeling determination, the two warriors began to cicle each other at high speeds. "I know what you're doing Sonic!" He shouted aloud.

"Oh yeah? What am I doing then, huh?"

Mark smiled with confidence, and simply stopped in front of a large cloud. "Go ahead take your best shot, Sonic."

Without thinking, Sonic formed chaos spears at his sides while rushing towards Mark. He dodged, and Sonic was hit head on by an energized shell from another Zendarrian Battlecruiser. "YahaaaaaaGH!" The force of impact sent him flying, Mark added to this by ramming him from below and sending him up into the planet's orbit.

"Enough games, Sonic! You won't give up, so I know what I have to do. However..." He could hear Mark, but wherever he looked he couldn't see him. "Take a good look around Sonic, i'll give you one last chance." He felt pain surge through his back as he was forced forwards, and upon regaining focus he had no words.

Thousands upon thousands of Zendarrian ships were in orbit, even the smallest ship dwarfed the _Blue Typhoon _by far. "How many are there?" He asked in awe of the sight. "T-There must be four...five thousand!" No matter where Sonic looked there were ships, every so often he saw combat, but those sights were near nonexistant.

"A good guess, Sonic. But incorrect" Mark had started floating next to him. "You might get the wrong idea, allow me to elaborate."

"W-What?"

"We don't intend to bring harm to any universe, we want to balance life for everyone that lives, but i've tried other ways; almost everyone simply wouldn't listen."

"And no one will, Mark!"

"Then I'm left with no other choice." Sonic felt sharp pain shoot through him as he was disoriented by Mark's attack. an energized shell proceeded to hit him in the back and slam him into the hull of a battleship. He took the opportunity and tried ramming through the ship, he smashed through the outer hull with ease, but rebounded off a second hull hidden within; it's armor was too strong.

Tails too was in awe at the sight of so many ships, "Sonic, get back to the ship. We're outta here!" Sonic heard through the communicator he had on him. Bolting through space, he dodged and weaved through the armada of warships to reach his friends. Tails shot a warp ring from the bow.

"Tails!" Cosmo screamed as an energized shell shot at them from a nearby cruiser. The impact knocked everyone standing to the floor as it shredded the flight deck into scraps of metal.

Sonic made just within the gravity field of the ship. He felt himself slipping away into unconciousness as the emeralds left him, the true pain of Mark's attacks taking effect. With the Chaos Emeralds scattered once more, Sonic fell down into the hangar, Tails closed the main doors.

"Let's go guys..." The Blue Typhoon flew at top speed toward the Warp Ring Tails had shot, they had escaped.

Mere hours passed before the Zendarrian army had taken over Mobius. Mark supervised the work from the bridge of his prized flagship, _The Devastation_. "Begin cleanup, men." He said through the intercom to the teams ready for departure. "Tend to any wounded before fixing structural damage." He finished. A dark purple mist flowed onto the bridge, taking the from of a humanoid lizard. "What is it, Deval?"

"Shall I go after the doctor, or the hedgehog? Master?" The thing's voice was deep and had a bit of a growl to it.

Mark sighed with annoyance. "Deval, i've told you once i've told you two hundred times; just because I created you doesn't mean you have to call me 'Master'. Just call be by my name."

"Very well, Master Mark. But I ask again, which one shall I pursue?"

He sighed again, "Right now, Deval. You are to ensure nothing happens to targets 173, 175, and 176. Do not allow any harm to befall them, and take this." Mark handed a hand written letter to the mist creature, which somehow managed to grab hold of it.

"What is it, sir?"

"For the last time call me Mark! Why didn't I make you smarter?" His voice was practically dripping with annoyance like it was venom. He took a few deep breaths "It's a letter explaining things to them. Target 176 might...freak out, make sure they read it."

The mist flowed off the bridge to the transport deck.

"I hate calling people by Target Numbers." Mark said to himself that night. He looked over at the picture frames on his nightstand and smiled.

Oddly enough, the same thing was happening on the _Blue Typhoon_. Tails was looking at the pictures of his friends on his own nightstand. His gaze shifted to a sleeping Cosmo, she was sound asleep in her own bed. "Goodnight, Cosmo." With those gentle words, he turned out the light.

Things were just only beginning.


	5. Chapter 5

**{ and } mark the beginning and end of a character's inner thoughts.**

A full week had passed since the invasion of Mobius, the Zendarrians seldom gave chase to the _Blue Typhoon _upon sighting it. "We can't just keep running from them, we have to fight back!" Knuckles had insisted time and time again, several times a day. He had just done it again before Tails came up with a new answer.

"Whoah...Guys, I think we just found a Chaos Emerald!" The radar on one of the far left screens was flashing to indicate he was correct.

"Yeah, and something tells me Mark will be heading right to it." Sonic spoke up, his injuries had fully healed thanks to Amy's care.

The newcomer Ashlei had told them about her past, her planet had fallen to the Zendarrians, but the had escaped alone in hope of finding a new home for the time being.

"Well then we'll just have to stop him! _Nobody's _invincible after all!" Amy chirped when she heard the news. "He'll regret messing with our life! I wonder if he'll like the taste of my _hammer against his mouth_!" She pulled out the hammer and slammed it into a picture of Mark to show she meant business.

"Amy, please calm down." Cosmo tried to reason. "I'm not happy about it either, but there isn't much we can do to fight him."

"Not without the emeralds anyway." Tails corrected her. "We'd be lucky if we could even launch the X Tornado at all, the damage they did was insanely bad compared to the Metarex." He explained while typing into a command console on his right. "Even with our shields up, those weapons just shred right through us!"

"Then we'll have to split up, some of us keep the Blue Typhoon intact while the other group goes down and gets the Chaos Emerald." Ashlei spoke from the doorway on the left of the bridge.

The discussion went on as Tails warped the Blue Typhoon into orbit of the planet. Surprisingly, Mark's fleet was nowhere to be seen. "I'll go with Sonic and Cosmo to the planet's surface and get the emerald in the X Tornado."

"Why not me? You'll need all the strength you can get if you run into Mark!" Knuckles boasted while bashing his fists together, trying to best Sonic in any way he could was what he was good at.

"Because, you're the only one who can control the Master Emerald's powers." Tails said as he walked towards the chute that led to the hangar. As he passed Ashei, he didn't notice her slip something behind his captain's chair. A small giggle from her was what got his attention. "What's so funny?"

{This is too easy. I kinda feel sorry for them.} She pointed at Knuckles, who had gotten into an argument with Sonic about who was the better hero.

"Sonic! Let's go!" Tails pulled him out of the argument and over to the chute. "Cosmo, you go right behind me, and Sonic will go last." He used the handgrips in the ceiling to send himself sliding down the chute towards the hangar, Cosmo followed, as did Sonic. It didn't take long for them to land in their seats, and Sonic on the back of the plane just behind the first cockpit.

"Ready Tails?" Cosmo asked as she strapped herself in.

"You bet!" Once he was sure Cosmo was strapped in, he ignited the engines and let loose. The new X Tornado shot forewards, they were coming up on the shredded flight deck in no time. "Here goes nothing!" He pulled up as hard as he could. The plane lifted off, and just in time as they flew over the exposed main cannon below. Tails shivered as they did so, memories of the last time he had used it returning.

On the bridge, Amy watched them fly off into the atmosphere below. "Good luck." She whispered. Ashlei let loose a laugh. Although Knuckles only found it cute, Amy was starting to become concerned about their new friend's behavior.

They flew for hours on end over an alien forest, the red blip getting closer and closer as time went on and sometimes sparking a conversation every once and a while. But it wasn't long before things heated up. A white transport craft flew by, making one of the oddest noises any of them had ever heard. On it's side was the same circular symbol Tails had spotted back home a full week ago. "What was that?" Cosmo asked.

"I don't know, but it looks like fun to me!" Sonic cheered from outside the plane's cockpit.

"More like _trouble_, Sonic. Look at _that_!" Sonic looked as Tails spoke, and saw the battle below between people in white armor, and another thing he knew all too well.

"Zendarrians! But there wasn't any fleet in orbit!" Cosmo said as she recognized the advancing forces.

"Looks like we're just in time, the Emerald's just past those hills up ahead!" The twin tailed pilot said as he adjusted the course. "Ready Sonic?"

The blue blur knew what Tails was planning to do, and boy was he ever! "No sweat!"

The X Tornado descended until it was low to the ground, the Zendarrians had already began firing at them. "Do it, Sonic!" Tails shot a ring into the air, Sonic leapt out and caught it.

He quickly spun into a homing attack, and smashed through the artillery in the back of the advance one after the other so Tails would have less trouble getting to the emerald. Within moments the artillery was gone, so Sonic headed for one of the Tanks, spinning into another homing attack. "Lights out, bud!" He shouted to the driver inside before impacting against the armor, making a rather large dent before he was flung back into the air by his own momentum.

"Shoot him!" The tank commander ordered. The shot from one of the gun barrels narrowly missed the hedgehog as he dodged higher into the air.

"_SONIC_!" Tails came back around, launching twin missiles at the dent in the tank's armor. The vehicle exploded as Sonic landed on the X Tornado once more.

"Nice work Tails!" Sonic shouted above the roar of the jet's engines.

They headed for the two hills where they would find the Chaos Emerald. Zendarrian foot soldiers firing at them in an effort to stop them from reaching their goal. "Get it Sonic!" Tails turned the plane on it's side as they passed over a clearing beyond the hills. The Chaos Emerald was buried in a rock near the center.

With a single attack Sonic smashed the rock apart, grabbed the emerald, and leapt back up. But on his way up, something slammed him hard back down into the ground, and he lost his grip on the emerald. It landed at the person's feet, and they didn't hesitate to pick it up. "Why thank you, Sonic. You've saved me the trouble a smashing a _rock_."

"Mark!" Sonic rose to his feet, ready to fight the monster of a man. But Mark did not attack.

"Calm yourself, Sonic. I have no reason to fight against you right now." The Emerald was gone, somewhere within his cape, he now held his twin sword one in each hand.

"Speak for yourself!" Sonic flung himself at the man in a homing attack, only to be repelled by the twin crystalline blades of his enemies' swords.

"I'm giving you a chance here, Sonic! Leave peacefully or feel my power, which will it be?"

Sonic stood up once more, he knew that as long as Mark had that emerald there was no way he was leaving! "Thanks but no thanks, Mark!" Sonic used all the speed he could summon, and raced around to Mark's back. Snagging the Emerald along with some other thing he made a mad dash for the top of the nearby hill through the trees.

"Give it back! _Sonic_!" He slashed at the hedgehog just a tad late, the blue blur had escaped onto the X Tornado. Tails kicked the engines into overdrive, and made a beeline for his ship.

"Ta ta!" Sonic laughed before he was out of earshot.

Mark growled, "Very well." In dull flash of light he fused his blades together at the hilt, holding it like a bow and arrow. Holding the bow with his left hand, he ran his right hand down the length and then gripped the air like an arrow, a rough arrow of dark energy appeared in place. In less than a second it became a refined, solid arrow of dark energy that could be shot.

"Hahaha! We did it Cosmo!" Tails shouted with joy to his co-pilot as they began to exit the atmosphere. The celebration was short lived.

"You're not getting away, not again." Mark whispered as he lined up the shot with his target, which by now was almost out of sight. He inhaled a deep breath, closed his good eye, and took the shot.


End file.
